Goals

Last night around the dinner table, we were all sharing about our day. 

When it was Poptart's turn, she said they went to counseling.  My question was, "What did you talk about?"  Her answer?  "Goals." 

It was a little strange hearing that come out of a 5-year-old's mouth.  Goals?  Really?  Poptart's goals for every day are play, eat, and play some more. 

Gogurt said they had talked about goals in counseling on a previous day as well.  He had to write one goal for the school year and one goal for the future.  Of course, we were curious to hear what our 9-year-old's goals were so he told us.  His goal for the school year is to read on a higher level.  (Those of you who know Gogurt knows he loves to read)  His goal for the future?  Be in the Army.  (That probably wasn't a shocker either)

That got me thinking about goals.  I've never been a good goal-setter.  I'm a good list-maker, like, for the day (I had a list made by 7 a.m. this morning) but as far as long-term goals, I'm not so good. 

I do see how they can be helpful.  You have to have a goal to work toward, right?  In your marriage, in your career, in your family, in your church?  Goals are good things.  And I think goals come from good places, positive places.  Have you ever noticed that when you are discouraged and you are having an internal dialogue that goes something like this:  You are 35 years old.  You should have a bigger house by now.  You should have more money in the account by now.  You should have more savings by now.  You should be in a better job by now, that you are probably not willing to sit down and discuss a 5-year plan with your spouse.  It's too hard to face the fact that your 5-year plan is to be where you thought you would be 10 years ago.  Well, my question is this, who put these notions in my mind of where I should be and what I should be doing at 35 years old?  Society?  My parents?  Or just me?  And is it from God at all? 

God wants us to be single-minded in our goals.  Our goal should be to bring honor to Him every day.  All this other stuff is just fluff.  And while I know this, I certainly do not do a good job at living this. 

To be honest, I would like a bigger house.  I would like more money in our bank account.  I would like to have more savings.  And Brad would definitely like an inside job.  None of these things in and of themselves are bad.  But if we focus all our concentration on attaining our "goals" and leave God out of the picture, what have we really accomplished?

I learned a long, long time ago what it meant to live a day at a time.  We are by no means impoverished, but we are by no means rich.  God gives us what we need week to week, sometimes day to day. 

My goal is to be thankful for His provisions so far and to trust Him to continue on. 

Now, I'm going to go mark off "Post on Blog" today off my list.